Rhetiae alpestris descriptio, in qua hodie Tirolis Comitatus. - Goritiae, Karstii, Chaczeolae, Carniolae, Histriae,...

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Original copper engraving, published 1612 in the famous Vrients-edition of the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum". Finely hand-coloured in wash and outline. Two maps on one doublepage plate, each one of them showing a title cartouche at the top centre. Villages and towns are shown as miniature views, as well mountains and rivers are shown. The both maps are engraved after Wolfgang Lazius. This example is in very decorative colours and in excellent condition, however the hand colour is probably done by a later hand. On the full sheet as published. The detailled map on the Duchy of Tirol, is mainly showing South Tirol with the area Insbruck, Trient, the Lago de Garda towards Verona in the South. The other map is showing the area Carniola, Istria and the so called 'Windisch Mark'. Ortelius was born on 14 April 1527 in the city of Antwerp, which was then in the Habsburg Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). The Orthellius family were originally from Augsburg, a Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1535, the family had fallen under suspicion of Protestantism. Following the death of Ortelius's father, his uncle Jacobus van Meteren returned from religious exile in England to take care of Ortelius. Abraham remained close to his cousin Emanuel van Meteren, who would later move to London. In 1575 he was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, Philip II, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy. He travelled extensively in Europe and is specifically known to have traveled throughout the Seventeen Provinces; in southern, western, northern, and eastern Germany (e.g., 1560, 1575–1576); France (1559–1560); England and Ireland (1576); and Italy (1578, and perhaps twice or thrice between 1550 and 1558). Beginning as a map-engraver, in 1547 he entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an illuminator of maps. He supplemented his income trading in books, prints, and maps, and his journeys included yearly visits to the Frankfurt book and print fair, where he met Gerardus Mercator in 1554. In 1560, however, when travelling with Mercator to Trier, Lorraine, and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator's influence, towards the career of a scientific geographer. (Wikipedia)

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